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Background: Extreme weather is a recognised risk factor for stillbirth and preterm birth, disrupts women's access to healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth, and negatively affects the care of newborns. Reliable and accessible heat and weather warning systems are key in alerting individuals to undertake protective measures. There is a notable gap in understanding how women and caregivers in rural East Africa perceive and utilize weather information. We investigated community members' heat and weather warning information-seeking behaviour, identified available sources, assessed their reliability and utility, and examined their influence on behaviour. Settings: Our research was conducted in rural Kilifi County in Kenya's coastal region. The area experiences temperatures exceeding 23°C throughout the year, with extended periods of extreme temperatures [> 40°C] and long and severe droughts. Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews [IDI] with pregnant and postpartum women [n = 21] and held six focus group discussions [FGDs] involving mothers-in-law and community health volunteers [CHVs]. The data were analysed in NVivo 12 using both inductive and deductive approaches. Results: We found significant gaps concerning pregnant and post-partum women, and their caregivers, having timely access to weather forecasts and heat information from health or meteorological authorities. Information on heat and weather warnings is disseminated through various channels, including television, radio, mobile phones, and word of mouth, which are facilitated by community influencers such as CHVs and local chiefs. Indigenous methods of weather forecasting, such as cloud observation, consulting local "rainmakers", and studying the behavioural patterns of amphibians, are employed in conjunction with warnings from the Kenyan Meteorological Department (KMD). Barriers to accessing weather information include the cost of television and smartphones and a lack of segmented information in local languages. Conclusions: National and county meteorological services need to enhance public participation, communication, and the delivery of heat and weather information to guide community-level response measures and individual behaviour change. They should also collaborate with health professionals to address heat risks for vulnerable groups. Further research is needed to empower indigenous weather predictors with modern weather information and revise national policies to deliver tailored messages to vulnerable populations like pregnant and postpartum women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface water flooding (SWF) is a severe hazard associated with extreme convective rainfall, whose spatial and temporal sparsity belie the significant impacts it has on populations and infrastructure. Forecasting the intense convective rainfall that causes most SWF on the temporal and spatial scales required for effective flood forecasting remains extremely challenging. National-scale flood forecasts are currently issued for the UK and are well regarded amongst flood responders, but there is a need for complementary enhanced regional information. Here we present a novel SWF-forecasting method, FOREWARNS (Flood fOREcasts for Surface WAter at a RegioNal Scale), that aims to fill this gap in forecast provision. FOREWARNS compares reasonable worst-case rainfall from a neighbourhood-processed, convection-permitting ensemble forecast system against pre-simulated flood scenarios, issuing a categorical forecast of SWF severity. We report findings from a workshop structured around three historical flood events in Northern England, in which forecast users indicated they found the forecasts helpful and would use FOREWARNS to complement national guidance for action planning in advance of anticipated events. We also present results from objective verification of forecasts for 82 recorded flood events in Northern England from 2013–2022, as well as 725 daily forecasts spanning 2019–2022, using a combination of flood records and precipitation proxies. We demonstrate that FOREWARNS offers good skill in forecasting SWF risk, with high spatial hit rates and low temporal false alarm rates, confirming that user confidence is justified and that FOREWARNS would be suitable for meeting the user requirements of an enhanced operational forecast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns in extreme precipitation across the Maritime Continent in southeast Asia are known to be modulated by many processes, from large‐scale modes of variability such as the Madden–Julian oscillation, to finer‐scale mechanisms such as the diurnal cycle. Transient mid‐level dry air intrusions are an example of a feature not extensively studied over the Maritime Continent, which has the potential to influence rainfall patterns. Here, we show that these dry air intrusions originate from upper level disturbances along the subtropical jet. Mid‐level cyclonic circulation anomalies northwest of Australia from December to February (DJF) intensify westerlies in the southern Maritime Continent, advecting dry air eastward. In contrast, mid‐level anticyclonic circulation anomalies northwest of Australia from June to August (JJA) intensify southern Maritime Continent easterlies, advecting dry air westward. The resultant transport direction of associated air parcels is also dependent on the seasonal low‐level monsoon circulation. Dry air intrusions are important in influencing low‐level wind and rainfall patterns, suppressing rainfall over seas near the southern Maritime Continent in both seasons, as well as over southern Maritime Continent islands in DJF and the Indian Ocean in JJA. In both seasons there is enhanced rainfall to the east of the intrusion, where there is moist return flow to the extratropics. This study highlights the importance of synoptic‐scale extratropical features in influencing meteorological patterns in the Tropics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Africa is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods. Skillful seasonal forecasts exist for the October–November–December short rains, enabling informed decisions, whereas seasonal forecasts for the March–April–May (MAM) long rains have historically had low skill, limiting preparation capacity. Therefore, improved long rains prediction is a high priority and would contribute to climate change resilience in the region. Recent work has highlighted how lower‐troposphere Congo zonal winds in MAM strongly impact regional moisture fluxes and the long rains total precipitation. We therefore approach long rains predictability through the predictability of the Congo winds. We analyze a set of hindcasts from a dynamical prediction system that is able to reproduce the long rains—Congo winds relationship in its individual ensemble members. Encouragingly, in observations, the strength of MAM Congo zonal winds and East Africa rainfall show substantial correlation with the MAM Atlantic (including North Atlantic Oscillation, NAO) and Indo‐Pacific variability, suggestive of ocean influence and potential predictability. However, these features are replaced by different teleconnections in the hindcast ensemble mean fields. This is also true for NAO linkage to Congo winds, despite correct representation in individual members, and good skill in hindcasting the NAO itself. The net effect is strongly negative skill for the Congo winds. We explore statistical correction methods, including using the Congo zonal wind as an anchor index in a signal‐to‐noise calibration for the long rains. This is considered a demonstration of concept, for subsequent implementation using models with better Congo zonal wind skill. Indeed, the clear signals found in the Atlantic (including Mediterranean) and Indo‐Pacific, studied here both in observations and a dynamical prediction system, motivate evaluation of these features across other prediction systems, and offer the prospect of improved physically‐informed long rains dynamical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi-season convection permitting regional climate simulation of the Maritime Continent using the Met Office Unified Model with 2.2-km grid spacing is presented and evaluated. The simulations pioneer the use of atmosphere-ocean coupling with the multi-column K profile parametrisation (KPP) mixed layer ocean model in atmospheric convection permitting climate simulations. Comparisons are made against a convection parametrised simulation in which it is nested, and which in turn derives boundary conditions from ERA5 reanalysis. This paper describes the configuration, performance of the mean state and variability of the two simulations compared against observational datasets. The models both have minor sea surface temperature (SST) and wet precipitation biases. The diurnal cycle, representation of equatorial waves and relationship between SST and precipitation are all improved in the convection permitting model compared to the convection parametrised model. The MJO is present in both models with a faster than observed propagation speed. However, it is unclear whether fidelity of the MJO simulation is inherent to the model or whether it predominantly arises from the forcing at the boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface water flooding (SWF) is a severe hazard associated with extreme convective rainfall, whose spatial and temporal sparsity belies the significant impacts it has on populations and infrastructure. Forecasting the intense convective rainfall that causes most SWF on the temporal and spatial scales required for effective flood forecasting remains extremely challenging. National scale flood forecasts are currently issued for the UK and are well regarded amongst flood responders, but there is a need for complimentary enhanced regional information. Here we present a novel SWF forecasting method, FOREWARNS (Flood fOREcasts for Surface WAter at a RegioNal Scale), that aims to fill this gap in forecast provision. FOREWARNS compares reasonable worst-case rainfall from a neighbourhood-processed, convection-permitting ensemble forecast system against pre-simulated flood scenarios, issuing a categorical forecast of SWF severity. We report findings from a workshop structured around three historical flood events in Northern England, in which forecast users indicated they found the forecasts helpful and would use FOREWARNS to complement national guidance for action planning in advance of anticipated events. We also present results from objective verification of forecasts for 82 recorded flood events in Northern England from 2013-2022, and for 725 daily forecasts spanning 2019-2022, using a combination of flood records and precipitation proxies. We demonstrate that FOREWARNS offers good skill in forecasting SWF risk, with high spatial hit rates and low temporal false alarm rates, confirming that user confidence is justified, and that FOREWARNS would be suitable for meeting the user requirements of an enhanced operational forecast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lake–land breeze circulation over Lake Victoria was observed in unprecedented detail with a research aircraft during the HyVic pilot flight campaign in January 2019. An evening and morning flight observed the lake and land breezes respectively under mostly dry conditions. The circulation was observed at various heights along a transect across the lake and onshore in Tanzania. Profiles of the lower troposphere were recorded by dropsondes over the lake and land. Convection-permitting MetUM simulations with different horizontal grid-spacings (including sub-km) were run for the flight periods. During the evening flight, the aircraft crossed the lake breeze front over land at 1627 LT, approximately 50km to the east of the lake shore, recording a 6 g⋅kg−1 decrease in specific humidity and reversal in wind direction over ∼5 km. During the morning flight, a shallow land breeze was observed across the eastern shore at 0545 LT. At least one region of increased and deeper moisture (previously seen in simulations but never observed) was sampled over the lake surface between 0527 and 0855 LT. This bulge of moisture was likely formed from the lifting of near-surface moist air above the lake by low-level convergence. The observations and model simulations suggest that low-level convergence occurred at the leading edge of the land breeze, which had detached from the main land breeze and independently propagated westward across the lake with wave-like characteristics. The MetUM simulations were able to reasonably reproduce the lake breeze front, bulge feature, and its propagation, which is a major achievement given the sparse observational data for model initialisation in this region. However, some timing, resolution and boundary-layer depth biases require further investigation. Overall, this pilot campaign provided an unprecedented snapshot of the Lake Victoria lake–land breeze circulation andmotivates amore comprehensive field campaign in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variability of rainfall in East Africa has major impacts on lives and livelihoods. From floods to droughts, this variability is important on short daily time‐scales to longer decadal time‐scales, as is apparent from the devastating effects of droughts in East Africa over recent decades. Past studies have highlighted the Congo airmass in enhancing East African rainfall. Our detailed analysis of the feature shows that days with a westerly moisture flow, bringing the Congo airmass, enhance rainfall by up to 100% above the daily mean, depending on the time of year. Conversely, there is a suppression of rainfall on days with a strong easterly flow. Days with a westerly moisture flux are in a minority in all seasons but we show that long rains with more westerly days are wetter, and that during the most‐recent decade which has had more frequent droughts (associated with the "Eastern African climate paradox"), there has been few days with such westerlies. We also investigate the influence of the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) and tropical cyclones, and their interaction with the westerly flow. We show that days of westerly moisture flux are more likely during phases 3 and 4 of the MJO and when there are one or more tropical cyclones present. In addition, tropical cyclones are more likely to form during these phases of the MJO, and more likely to be coincident with westerlies when forming to the east of Madagascar. Overall, our analysis brings together many different processes that have been discussed in the literature but not yet considered in complete combination. The results demonstrate the importance of the Congo airmass on daily to climate time‐scales, and in doing so offers useful angles of investigation for future studies into prediction of East African rainfall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]